Steve Linick, inspector general of the State Department, was unexpectedly fired Friday night in a decision that has generated alarm and convictions of key figures in the Democratic Party, who assure that it is a political revenge.
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This was described on Twitter by the president of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who denounced a “dangerous pattern of retaliation” by the president against “patriotic public servants who are in charge of supervising on behalf of the American people.”
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The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President’s dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people. https://t.co/VavmuJpX25
– Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2020
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After the surprise dismissal, Democrats in Congress launched an investigation on the case this Saturday.
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The investigation into the firing of the State Department inspector general was announced by Eliot Engel, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.
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Linick’s departure, confirmed by the State Department Friday night but without stating the reason, is Trump’s third abrupt dismissal of an official tasked with monitoring government abuses since April.
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According to lawmakers, Linick was investigating allegations that Pompeo abused the services of a person named by the political power, asking him to perform personal tasks for himself and his wife. The CNN chain, citing a senior State Department official, reported that Pompeo himself recommended the removal of the inspector.
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Pompeo often travels on the government plane with his wife, Susan Pompeo, which raises controversy since she has no official position.
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A State Department spokesman reported that the new inspector general will be Stephen Akard, a former assistant to Vice President Mike Pence.
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An assistant to Congress cited by The Washington Post He said Linick was investigating “Pompeo’s misuse of a political designee in the Department to carry out personal duties for himself and Mrs. Pompeo.”
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In a letter announcing the layoff, addressed to Nancy Pelosi, the President said that the inspector general no longer has his “full confidence” and will be removed from office in 30 days, the minimum period required to previously notify legislators of this type of decision.
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Trump and his dismissals
Steve Linick was appointed to his position in 2013 by the President Barack Obama and previously he had criticized the department’s leadership for retaliating against its employees. As confirmed by a spokesman for that body on Friday, Linick will be replaced by Ambassador Stephen J. Akard.
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Trump has fired numerous officials at a time when they were conducting investigations of him or those who criticize or oppose any action by his government.
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Linick’s is the latest in a series of dismissals of supervisory officials who somehow clashed with the Trump administration.
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Recently, Trump fired Christi Grimm as deputy inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, after Grimm’s office criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
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Similarly, he removed Glenn Fine, chairman of the federal committee of Congress to oversee the government’s handling of the 2 trillion stimulus package. And shortly before he had also done it with Michael Atkinson, intelligence inspector general, who processed the anonymous complaint that led Trump to a impeachment.
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Among Trump’s most resonant recent layoffs was the untimely removal of a respected former diplomat, Marie Yovanovitch, as US ambassador to Ukraine. She was fired in May 2019, at the time when the President and his associates were campaigning with the Ukrainian government to initiate investigations against the Biden family. Yovanovitch was a witness in the ‘impeachment’ to Trump.
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In 2017, the President fired FBI Director James Comey when he was investigating the links between the 2016 Republican campaign and Russian emissaries. This dismissal led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, to continue the investigation.
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